Examples of capital letter branded ideas/processes/frameworks that I’ve personally seen blamed for all manner of ills include Agile, Lean, DevOps, Six Sigma, DevOps, Flat and Hierarchical Org Structures, and Waterfall. However, all of these are simply “thinking tools” that can be used for good or evil. I reject that these tools can be the underlying cause of any of these ills.

(I don’t even blame Waterfall for many of the death marches in its wake. Waterfall is _supposed_ to have feedback loops and we should collectively re-examine a plan that isn’t working. Waterfall isn’t ignoring those things, project leaders and management are!)

Instead, we should look towards essential aspects of human nature: trust, collaboration, purpose, autonomy, safety, thinking about the future, honesty, value, growth, learning, and any others that affect how we socially interact.

[1] The topic is DevOps and the post is here: https://www.jeffknupp.com/blog/2014/04/15/how-devops-is-killing-the-developer/ and I can certainly sympathize with some of the pains and failings written there.